Amor Vincit Omnia
by XX00Meg00XX
Summary: "Their love story had been beautiful, epic and one that all people dream about. It lived through tests and trials and only grew stronger as the years went on. In the end, it taught the most beautiful lesson of all." One-shot that whispered in my ear until I put the words on paper. Warning: Character deaths.


**Warning: This story includes character deaths. **I promise that not all of my stories will be this angsty, but I have been running around with this idea in my head since I first decided to start writing again. Please, before you decide to send hate because of the deaths, try to open you mind to the meaning of the story. This story is based off of my personal life. It's a story that I needed to tell so that I could finally let go and begin to heal and move on. It's more for me than for anyone else, but I hope that most of you will see the beauty in it. Caskett is one of my favorite love stories and I thought there were no better characters to tell this story than them. If you would like to know the real story behind this, you can PM me and I will be glad to tell it to you. A huge thank you to Jill for reading over this and being my cheerleader while I wrote it!

**Disclaimer: This story is my own, but the characters used to tell it are not.**

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><p><strong><em>Amor Vincit Omnia<em>**

It was February the fifth, one of the coldest days of that winter, when death stole him from her. He'd fought long and hard, beating the odds and surprising them all with his strength, all of them but her. She never doubted him. It had taken nine stents, a triple bypass surgery, two strokes and finally a heart attack to take him down, leaving no questions about his strength.

The first stroke had come several years after his bypass, and had left him partially numb on his left side and limited his speaking ability. She had the hardest time with the speaking part because he'd always been so vocal; it was something she loved most about him. He'd been in the hospital from November to January trying to recover. In late January he'd developed pneumonia and had struggled to overcome it. The second stroke had come right after, it had been mild, but it made his recovery even more difficult. With consent from him, she'd agreed to put him on the vent to let him rest while his body tried to heal.

She'd come home the night after to catch up on some rest. After close to forty years of marriage and three kids, the years had caught up with her. She'd been by his side most of the nights he was in the hospital, but she knew he'd want her to rest. She got the call early the next morning, during the night he'd suffered a heart attack.

When she finally got a chance to talk to the doctor he only confirmed what she'd already feared. Due to all the strain on his heart and the effects of the heart attack, his heart was only working at around three percent. She didn't need him to explain any further, she knew there was no way he could survive after that. They had discussed things like this years ago, each agreeing that being kept alive with a machine was no way to live.

She spoke with their family, but in the end the decision came down to her. On February the fifth, at the age of eighty-three, while surrounded by all the people that loved him, they removed the vent and Richard Castle passed away.

She'd been the last one to leave the room, allowing herself time to come to terms with letting him go. She'd bent over and kissed him on the cheek, whispering the only words she could get out, "Until tomorrow, I love you, Rick, always".

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><p>For the first several months after he was gone she did relatively well on her own. It was close to a year and a half later when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and things started to go downhill. The disease had progressed relatively quickly and it wasn't long before their kids had to start taking care of her. She lost her ability to do pretty much anything on her own and soon required twenty-four hour care.<p>

Their kids could do nothing but watch as she slowly withered away, and their once strong and fierce mother became weak and brittle. About a month before the two year anniversary of Castle's death, she took a turn for the worse. She spent her days lying in the bed imagining that he was still there with her.

The disease had taken most things from her, but it hadn't taken her love for the rock of a man that had been by her side for so many years. She longed to be with him again and she welcomed the darkness each time she closed her eyes and was met with his face.

She stopped eating and taking her medicine a few days before the fifth of February and their kids knew that her time was coming to an end. In her final days she laid in the bed with her hands stretched in the air, reaching for freedom from her tired body, but more than that, she was reaching for him.

She made it nine days after the two year anniversary of his death, they found her on the morning of February the fourteenth, Valentine's Day, her body was still warm, she waited until that morning to finally let go.

At her funeral one of their children spoke on what she thought her mother's final moments alive had been like, little did she know how accurate her description really was. In fact, it was as if Kate herself was telling it, a whisper of the end to their story.

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><p><em>In spite of not remembering much, she knew what day it was as soon as she opened her eyes. She'd never been much for Valentine's Day, but Castle had always loved it. She'd opted to show her love to him year round, he opted to use that day to magnify is love for her in any way he could. On that morning she'd opened her eyes to a bright light, brighter than any light she'd ever seen and then there he was. It wasn't like all the other times that she had dreamed about it, this was different, he was real. His smile seemed to stretch on for miles and his blue eyes sparkled like beautiful diamonds. <em>

_He reached out for her hand and she held her breath, praying for him not to disappear. His words filled the room as he reached for her again, "Kate, it's time my love, come with me, let go." That's all it took for her to know that she'd held on until now for this very moment, to be reunited with her love on the day designated for lovers. _

_ She reached out and took his hand and finally let go of her earthly body and went to be with her soul mate. There was no pain or discomfort, only the overwhelming joy of finally being in his arms again. He surrounded her and filled her with love as he carried her away._

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><p>Their love story had been beautiful, epic and one that all people dream about. It lived through tests and trials and only grew stronger as the years went on. In the end, it taught the most beautiful lesson of all, one that they had always believed, <em>Love conquers all<em>.


End file.
